My main motivator that got me to publicate this guide was the sheer amount of players, good or bad, that don't use the disguise kit to its full effectiveness. What I mean by this is that 90% of the time a disguise is used to fool a couple of people for 2 seconds or to sap a sentry.

The truth is that most people are lazy.
You can be a high scoring spy with skills in trickstabs and such but in the end if you think a little bit longer about your game it makes a massive difference.

Not only will your effectiveness as a player increase, but nothing really beats the feeling of acting so well that the team genuinely believes your b u l l s h i t.

oh and another thing, you won't be using the dead ringer as much as you would be.
This kind of gameplay will bring about a more careful style of play instead of an agressive one.

A stock fire axe weilding pyro hovering near the medic/sentry is NOT stealthy.
You may have not known this, but that wasn't the best choice for a disguise.

There are many things that you have to take into account when choosing your correct disguise, but I've made an acronym that makes it simple to remember these things: This stands for:

Appearance, Weapon and Placement

• Appearance: You need to know what class to disguise as and when.
  What you are is the first thing people will note about you.
  For example: Engineers do not belong on the front lines of a battle, spies do not hang about the team and scouts usually are as far apart from defense as possible.
  
  Never make direct eye contact with your enemy, as it makes you look extremely suspicious despite it being such a minor action.
  
  If you didn't already know, reloading with your pistol while disguised will mimic the reload of the person's weapon that you are holding. You're guaranteed to have lots of fun with this cool trick

• Weapon: This is another very important thing when dealing with enemies who are close enough to you to see what weapon you are holding. Your life is really depending on the details of your disguise as anyone even remotley suspicious is spychecked.
  Another cool thing to try is to make yourself look like you are weilding your secondary weapon. This strangely works as most people expect spies to either have a primary or melee out.
  For Example: Legitimate medics do not always have their primary weapon out.

• Placement: Although Apperance and Placement are sort of the same, you should still treat them as seperate things. Really take into account where you should be in order to make the plays and stabs that will not only benefit you, but your team alike.

Some of these "special" disguises include:

• Friendly heavy: This fat fella always has either his sanvich or his uber-jolly punching mittens on display, and is usually in a crouching position

• The "I-Literally-just-installed": This person has absolutely no idea what is going on. He isn't exactly walking in any general direction or aiding the team. For this you need to make sure that you're completely bald and have no sign of experience in this game.

• The Pann-Mann For this you have to be an upper-class player (prefferably wearing an unusual) that only ever holds the frying pan. This one is a little harder to believe but with a little bit of in-game voice commands and suggestion you might even earn yourself a pocket medic.
  
  
  You have to have a good enough disguise to fool yourself.
  You need to act like your disguise would be doing in that situation.
  
  
  
  
  
  

OH HEY LOOK IMMA DISGUISE AS A HEAVY FROM MY TEAM THEM AUTOMATICALLY DEAD RINGER OUT WHEN THE MAP STARTS. FLAWLESS PLAN LOL.

-Exerpt from the mind of a lazy player


This is the only thing I really see most spies using the friendly disguise funtion for, which is really sad because there are so many things that can achieve with it.

Personally I don't really use the friendly disguise kit all that often as the regular disguise kit is a bunch more helpful. Not to say that the friendly disguise kit is comepletly useless, which it isn't.

The only thing I realy use the friendly disguise function for about 80% of the time is for getting around the map.
This kind of thing doesn't work wellunless you're playing koth or a similar map where the focus is on the middle of the map.
Then again, I never use the dead ringer


I've also used friendly disguises to "intimidate" the enemy. This works some of the time but I find its way too situational to really use all that much.

Sorry if I haven't been of much use here... I wish I could share more advice but I just don't use this enough to come up with any real tips.
But for this kind of thing I encourage all of you to work this out for yourself and experiment a little.
try something that no one has attempted before.

Be creative.

To play good as a spy or any class in general, map knowledge is key.

You need to figure out the spots in the map that will benefit you most. A little bit of map practise is needed for this but most of you would have played most of the maps in this game.

Not only is knowing a particular map important, but where your enemy is in accordance to it. This may include popular sentry, sniping or general defensive hot-spots.
If you know where your enemy is then you shouldn't keep this a secret, using team chat communicate with your team so they might be able to prepare for a uber/kritz push.

For some reason, most spies don't exactly play for their team, but for themselves (more or less). They will choose who they go after and when, which is understandable but teamwork doesn't need to be disregarded when playing this class just because you aren't physically close to them.

Position yourself in such a way that will benefit your team the most, and not just yourself.

If you think about it its pretty much the same thing
Cloaks

• Dead ringer: I hate this weapon not only because its frustrating to fight, but because every skilled player knows when to identify a feigned death. i.e. weird death animations or no hitsound.
  This allows for a more aggressive style of gameplay, but if you wish to follow this guide I would advise against using it.

• Invis watch:This gives you the most freedom to walk around in, but means that you'll have to refill it with ammo or weapons left on the ground.
  meh. This isn't bad, but it also isn't the worst either. If you do use it then get used to remembering the timing.

• Cloak and Dagger (my personal favourite): When you aren't moving it stops draining the invisibility, but means that you'll have less time to traverse the map while under its affects. Most people think that you can't run away as well with this, but thats simply wrong (i'll explain later).with this you can position yourself and wait to seize the opportune moment.

Most people think that cloaking in plain sight is a bad thing, when its probably the best time you CAN cloak.
When you cloak in plain sight, it gives the other team something to believe. If you cloak walking north then turn east, the chances are that pyro is still looking for you in the completely wrong spot.
This is obviously more dangerous so you need to make sure that you're relatively safe.

If a pyro is chasing you in this situation, turn around and shoot because there is nothing you can really do...

But if a class using hitscan weapons are looking for you, don't walk in straight lines.
be completely unpredictable. When this kind of thing is needed I just look at the ground, then wave my mouse about in random directions. This may not be the best way to evade your enemies, but it sure is hilarious when it works.
If you want to achieve this the "RIGHT" way, then try to predict where they'll be firing next. See where they previously fired, and then move to a place where they wouldn't expect you to be.

Contrary to popular belief, as soon as you see someone you don't necessarily HAVE to kill them

Learning when to spare someone (Not because of pity or guilt or so fourth) can assist you immensly.
For instance, if you have one person's trust, then there is a chance that the rest of their team will trust you as well.
If this isn't enough for you, just see how long you can keep them tricked for.


there are some instances where you absolutely have to go in and kill, regardless of whether you pay survive or not.
This kind of thing is perfect for medics who have full uber or players on the enemy team that are a very prominent threat to yours
Losing your disguise for the sake of killing a single pyro isn't exactly worth it if you have higher value targets in range such as Medics, Power Classes and sentry guns.

Sometimes it is safe to kill people whenever you want but you really need to double check that you'll get away with it.

There are times when a player from the enemy team (hopefully not a pyro, otherwised you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥) will suspect you being a spy and will spycheck you. Knowing how to deal with this is very important.

A majority of the time if and when people decide whether you're a spy or not, they won't stop attacking you unless you die because everybody hates spies.

There are two ways you can counter this:

• Run away like a little girl
  This works some of the time, but it means that you'll be giving up your disguise (one way or another)

• Acting
  If you keep acting like whatever their shooting at you isn't hurting, theres a chance that they will leave you alone which leaves you a window of opportunity to strike while they still believe your folly. If you die in this proccess it was definetly worth a shot and is way better than being killed running away.

Basically the real message here is:

Keep them fooled for as long as possible

I've compiled the things that I think are the most important to remember.

• A.W.P.

• Knowing when to kill, and when not to.

• Working with your team

• Keeping your disguise no matter the circumstances

• Thinking before you act.

What really helps with this is thinking logically. Set out things in order and work through them accordingly. Make a mental or a physical list of what you need to do, and either mentally or physically tick off the boxes once you complete each task.
Fun Fact: You can also apply logical thinking skills in the real world!

after reading all of this, you might take out a little bit of help, a lot, or maybe nothing at all.
It makes no matter, although I hope that everybody took at least something out of this.

please let me know if you have any other ideas that you think I missed out on this guide, or if you have any feedback or kritisicm about this to share.

Take care and have fun.

here I'll be colaberating all of the adive that YOU, the viewer as well as other viewers have contributed to this guide.

Please don't hesitate to add to this, as all of you are teaching me things that even I didn't know.


Wait... who?
Choose your disguises wisely. Be someone everyone will expect not to shoot. Everyone expects a pyro to spew flame every second or a heavy to spray everywhere. I like to be a sniper or a spy because as a spy I have an excuse to go invisible and snipers wont be spraying everywhere. Keep this in mind.


Spacer
You need to include friendly disguises 90% of spies avoid them like the plague when they not only hide your presence from the enemy but you can also do some tricks with a friendly disguise

Justinbk
You also have to be pretty fast so that the other team doesn't even know what hit them. It could be the difference between that pyro respawning and killing you or you being able to do a round about and beat him to it!


Soap
"All warfare is based on deception." - The Art of War, Sun Tzu.


Captain Emerica
What about going sniper and crouching behind walls

faith_light
my advice for playing spy is that disguising isnt your only option, for those willing to get thumped a few times try practicing being spy without using your cloak for more than 5 secs at a time, and without disguises. It teaches you how to simply avoid attention. Combine this later with the acting taught here, and your own sneaky tricks and you'll be untouchable.


Edge chp 17, Dreams inbetween
(reloading with your revolver makes you reload with the disguise, dont forget that.)

Onkydonk 3
If you disguise as an engineer, and find that particular engineer's buildings un-guarded by the engi himself, you can look exactly like an engineer by standing on their sentry. I haven't tried this, but I've seen some unlucky spies try that on me.


Digitic
I personally love to use the friendly disguise kit, with or without the dead ringer. With it, you can disguise as a friendly, then wait for someone to shoot you, run behind their lines, recharge cloak, and repeat. You can also redisguise while cloaking. Without it, I disguise at the start, then find a hiding spot (2fort sewers, dustbowl shack in 2nd), cloak, and the enemy has no idea I'm a spy. It's also useful for distracting snipers, pretending to have a heavy even if you don't (hiding around a corner and hitting "activate charge" (X7?) works pretty well). Also, you can go friendly heavy on your team too.


Vinyl Melody
Don't disguise as a medic or a scout, for the love of god. If a medic doesn't heal me near instantly, I spycheck. A spy disguised as a scout is so obvious but I see people doing it all the time.


Badonkadonk
If you're playing with a friend, and both of you are spies. One of them can go as an enemy Heavy/Medic pair and fool the other team.

Vulcan Raven
but be careful even if you're an enemy spy you have have a team colored cloak color

Alto Clef
To be fair,disguising as an enemy Spy doesn't really seem to fool most people.
The majority of players rely mainly on their cloak to get behind enemies,and the fact that disguising as an enemy Spy always makes the person you're disguising as look like it's wearing a disguise mask.

Br4un
When entering an engie nest, it is good to not go "LOL SAP EVERYTHING". Wait a little bit, because on maps like payload, it's common engineers going already to last point. Then, you can see who is coming from respawn, imagine if a soldier and a pyro are coming from respawn, wait for them to pass, then sap. And, during that time, you will get the engie trust.

Nalan North
Change disguises often. If a sniper is continually backstabing people, they would hopefully begin to catch on and target snipers much more readily. Changing should keep them guessing as to whos gonna get them next.

Malcis
if you can work in pairs, it can be a great way to allay the other team's suspicions, because they expect to find loners as spy. Good luck finding a partner in crime.

Sky Shaper
one tip of advice, pay attesion to how much health your dsiquise has, if you are very low on health, cream medic and/or run to a health pack

[UND] Detroit_Domer
A word of caution: if you're disguised as a sniper, you won't be able to mimic their scoping...so if the enemy sees a "sniper" standing around but not aiming their rifle, that'll raise the alarm real quick. Make it look you're changing sniping locations often so that it makes sense for you to not be scoped-in.

ϟ SILENTNinja ϟ
Illusions - These are one of the acts of mind games you can do with the Invisibility Watch or Cloak & Dagger. Be uncloaked, Run past a wall or anything that will break the line of sight of the enemy, then cloak yourself, and run in a different direction. This will almost always work. They go to the direction they last saw you. Make sure you don't bump or get hit by anything! This will give away the illusion.